Foot-slab of a Stone Sarcophagus

CultureChinese

DateNorthern Wei dynasty (386-534 C.E.)

MediumEngraved grey limestone

DimensionsOverall: 27 1/4 × 18 5/8 inches (69.22 × 47.32 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number33-1543/3

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionDesign of man holding a sword or club in left hand. Tortoise and snake enframing figure. (The Black Warrior of the North)Gallery Label

Gallery Label

This section of a stone sarcophagus is believed to have come from the tomb of Lady Yuan. Born to a noble family, she likely chose to decorate her sarcophagus with scenes of Confucian virtues to demonstrate her status. The virtues displayed here exemplify filial piety—the duty of a son to look after his parents, or a brother to look after his siblings—a cornerstone of Confucian beliefs. What is remarkable about these scenes on the assembled sarcophogus is the way the artist has skillfully integrated landscape and narrative into the composition. Each episode occurs in a “space cell,” the frame defined by the landscape motifs with foreshadowing treatment. The landscapes evoke the mood of the stories and underscore the didactic message. Note the tree with two main trunks: Confucian texts indicate that when virtue permeates all things, double trees will appear. episodes in landscape settings, but the vertical compositions are more condensed than the earlier engravings.

Provenance

Hua Ku Shan Fang (Beijing);

Purchased from Hua Ku Shau Fang by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.

Published References

Iruko Okumura, “Urinasu: Ikurō zasshi,” (Kyōto-shi: Okumura Ikurō, Shōwa 10 1935), pp.274, 282, 289, 530 (repro.).

“The Chinese Exhibition, A Commemorative Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art Royal Academy of Arts,” (London: Faber and Faber Limited, November 1935- March 1936), 105, 109 (repro.).

Laurence Sickman, ed., “Early Chinese Art,” Oriental Art: Series O (Newton, Massachusetts: The University Prints 1938): section II, pl. 162 (repro.).

Alexander C. Soper, “Early Chinese Landscape Painting,” Art Bulletin, vol. 23, no. 2 (June 1941): 141-64, figs. 19-20 (repro.).

Ludwig Bachhofer, “A Short History of Chinese Art,” (New York: Pantheon Books, 1946), 96-97, pl. 88 (repro.).

Alexander C. Soper, “Life-Motion and the Sense of Space in Early Chinese Representational Art,” Art Bulletin, vol. xxx (September 1948): figs. 6-7 (repro.).

Alexander C. Soper, “Life Motion and the sense of space in early Chinese representational Art,” Art Bulletin, vol. XXX, no.3 (1948): 167-186, figs. 8-9 (repro.).

William Cohn, “Chinese Painting,” (London: Phaidon Press, 1948), 38, 39, fig.7-8 (repro.).

Michael Sullivan, “On Painting the Yun-t’ai-shan,” Artibus Asiae, vol. XVII (1954): 95 (repro.).

Hugo Munsterberg, “Landscape Painting Of China and Japan,” (Rutland and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company of Rutland, June 1955, 1956), 17, pl. 3 (repro.).

M. Paul-David, “La Chine et Son Expansion des Han aux T’ang,” I’Art t I’Homme (1956), fasc. 13, tome 2, p. 52 fig. 141 (repro.).

Osvald Siren, “Chinese Painting, Leading Masters and Principles,” vol. 1 (New York: Ronald Press, 1956), 51-56 (repro.).

Osvald Siren, “Chinese Painting, Leading Masters and Principles,” vol. 3 (New York: Ronald Press, 1956), pls. 24-28 (repro.).

Laurence Sickman, Alexander Sope, “The Art and Architecture of China,” (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1956, 1960, 1968), 58-59, pls. 52-53 (repro.).

Medley, Margaret, “Certain Technical Aspects of Chinese Landscape Painting,” Oriental Art, vol. V, no. 1 (1959): 26-28, figs. 8a-8b (repro.).

Horst W. Janson, ed., “Key Monuments in the History of Art,” (New York: 1959), pl. 324 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 192 (repro.).

Alexander C. Soper, “A New Chinese Tomb Discovery,” Artibus Asiae, vol. XXIV (1961): 82, fig. 2 (repro.).

Michael Sullivan, “An Introduction to Chinese Art,” (Berkeley, Los Angeles: 1961), 103, pl. 53 (repro.).

Michael Sullivan, “Birth of Landscape Painting in China,” (Berkeley, Los Angeles: 1962), pls. 123-128 (repro.).

Peter Charles Swann, “The Art of Japan,” (New York: Crown Publishers, 1966), 50-51, fig. 25 (repro.).

Toshio Nagahiro, “The Representational Art of the Six Dynasties Period,” (Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha, Showa 44, 1969), xxiii-xxv, pp.181-184, fig. 51-54, pls. 20-28, 37-39, 42-49, 50-56 (repro.).

Sherman Lee, “A History of Far Eastern Art,” (New York: 1964, 1973), 259, fig. 129, fig. 329 (repro.).

Michael Sullivan, “Arts of China,” (Berkeley, California: 1973), 100-01, fig. 74 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna, and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. II, Art of the Orient. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 44 (repro.).

Apollo, special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. XCVII, no. 133 (March 1973) 8, fig. 8 (repro.).

Annette L. Juliano, “Art of The Six Dynasties: Centuries of Change and Innovation,” in China Institute in America, October 29, 1957-February 1, 1976, exh. cat. (New York: China House Gallery, 1975), 15, fig. d, pp. 74-78 (repro.).

Edmund Capon, “Art and Archaeology of China,” (South Melbourne: Macmillan Company of Australia Pty, 1977), 120, pl. 79 (repro.).

Annette L. Juliano, “Converging Traditions in the Imagery of Yu Hong’s Sarcophagus: Possible Buddhist Sources,” Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology vol. 1 (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2006): 39, fig. ia (repro.).

Murray, Julia K., Mirror of Morality: Chinese Narrative Illustration and Confucian Ideology (Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press, 2007), 41, fig. 25-26 (repro.).

Colin Mackenzie, with contributions by Ling-En Lu, Masterworks of Chinese art: the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2011), 36-41, no. 8 (repro.).

Roger Covey, “Canon Formation and the Development of Western Chinese Art History” in Original Intentions: Essays on Production, Reproduction, and Interpretation in the Arts of China, edited by Nick Pearce and Jason Steuber (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2012), 38-73, numerous figures (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.